[Please reference this post if you have not previously read about VFP-TMM.]

I have decided to post the TMM content in a Spacefold-articles location with a table-of-contents page, showing an excerpted view of the CHM TOC as we would have expected to revise it. The location is http://spacefold.com/articles/TMM.

This should help Colin and me contribute our various topics more easily than posting the individual docoids as blog entries. It will also help you navigate the additions to the help file more easily. I will still use the TMM tag here exclusively to post information when I update or add docoids to that location, so if you use an RSS feed you will be notified. Instead of being the actual TMM docoid contents, my TMM blog posts will be short pointers to what I've added and maybe why I think some areas are especially important.

Topics in the new TOC document are not listed in the order of significance, or anything like that. But neither is the contents of the CHM.

What you see in that TOC is pretty close to the original project plan I gave User Ed, with a large helping of formatting. At least it will give you some idea of the scope of the changes in SP2, and why we consider it a significant effort to document them.

Over the next month or so I am going to try to spend a little time almost every day to upload as many docoids as possible. I feel tired already.

Carl Warner

Hey, Carl, thanks, I appreciate the encouragement. I wish I could say it would help sufficiently. I've just posted the first entry, though. When you see how much there is to do you'll see why I'm tired just thinking about it...

Carl Warner

11/4/2007 5:15:54 PM |

Yes, I see the two you posted today.

That kind of content is not something anyone just throws together in an ad hoc fashion in an hour.

I posted your docoid's existence on the VFUG List Server and as a message in the VFUG message forum. They can't say they weren't told about your efforts to document the Report Writer enhancements. I've also thrown the same message out via e-mail to a few folks who are pretty lazy getting to web sites. You have to put information right in front of them for any chance of osmosis taking place.

* -- as far as "putting the information right in front of folks" goes... that's exactly why we wanted it in the shipping docs... This method may not be "right in front" of anybody but it is, after much thought, the best way for me to do it.

* -- as far as "they can't say they weren't told", if you mean people have been complaining about this, I guess that is their right but you are not going to bait me into getting back into forums to debate anything about this. Sorry, I just have to conserve energy, big time.

* -- thank you for your efforts to publicize! I hope it "takes".

I do want to alert you to the fact that I have a tendancy to "re-think" and redact a bit after posting. This is unavoidable, and only makes things better. I don't want to force people to keep coming back to re-look at stuff, but.. there it is. It's a process.

Case in point: The critical frxCursor post is getting some more notes tonight, as a result of other work that will also be going up tonight. The other work... occasioned additional thoughts.

I'll explain in a blog post later this evening (I hope). The point is, the very first time a docoid appears it probably isn't final. FWIW I submitted my RTM-CHM topic contents a bunch of times, each, as well; you just didn't have to suffer through the process that time.

Carl Warner

11/5/2007 7:41:03 AM |

No, please don't confuse what I said with trying to debate in online forums. I've had some back and forth on forums and other blogs and in e-mail list servers. I've had enough and said all I'm going to say there. But, I seem to have the feeling deep down that some have shortchanged Fox developers in the way SP2 has been handled. And, believe me, I am NOT referring to you. And, to avoid more flak, I will not comment any deeper than what I have. We already have been red-headed step children. Now I guess we're not even going to be invited to Thanksgiving dinner this year.